The effects of male mating behaviour and food provisioning on breeding success in snow buntings <Emphasis Type="Italic">Plectrophenax nivalis</Emphasis> in the high Arctic |
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Authors: | Katrine S Hoset Yngve Espmark Marie Lier Tommy Haugan Morten I Wedege Arne Moksnes |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, Realfagbygget, 7491 Trondheim, Norway;(2) Section of Ecology, Department of Biology, University of Turku, 20014 Turku, Finland |
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Abstract: | For passerine birds breeding in the Arctic, paternal effort in parental care is necessary for successful breeding. Behavioural
strategies, such as mate guarding, to ensure paternity should therefore also be common in this environment. In order to investigate
the relation between such behaviour and breeding success, when controlling for the effect of environmental factors, we recorded
male mate-guarding behaviour, parental effort and breeding success amongst snow buntings, Plectrophenax nivalis, in the high Arctic environment of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Mate-guarding intensity tended to positively affect male feeding
frequency per nestling in one of the study years, negatively in 1 year and without effect in the 3rd year. The negative effect
in 1999 was strong, but variation in estimates of the 2 other years was high and the effect of mate guarding may be negligible
in these 2 years. We assume that this pattern might be related to yearly variation in the prevalence of extra-pair young.
Male food provisioning was not positively related to breeding success, but late breeders had higher breeding success than
early breeders. Thus, the effect of male mate guarding is highly variable and mainly affects food provisioning rates, but
the benefit for total breeding success seems to be marginal, at best. |
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